Zahir Hussain Shah - Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V: Deploying Hyper-V Enterprise Server Virtualization Platform

Zahir Hussain Shah is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional who has worked with businesses from small- to medium-sized organizations to gigantic multinational companies, providing IT consultancy and solution delivery. He has been working in the IT industry for over 7 years now. Currently he is working with UAE's prestigious oil and gas sector for providing solution designs and delivery using Microsoft Hyper-V, clustering, Active Directory, Exchange Server, Lync Server, and System Center.

He has also been honored with the industry's most prestigious Microsoft Most Valuable Professional ( MVP ) award in the year 2011/2012, for his excellent contribution in the Microsoft server systems technical communities. Apart from the daily office life, Zahir is an author, public speaker, and a blogger. He owns a successful blog (http://zahirshahblog.com) on Microsoft private cloud, messaging, unified communications, and systems infrastructure solutions. He also has CISSP, MCSE, MCITP, MCTS, and CCNA certifications.

I want to dedicate this book and my thanks to my parents and family, and especially to my father Amir Asghar Shah, who always showed trust in me and supported me for every little thing in my life. I also want to thank my book reviewers, friends, colleagues, and teachers for their support. And last but not least, I can't forget to give sincere thanks to my beautiful wife Aynah, for her support and love.

Niklas Akerlund is a Product Manager at Lumagate. His focus is on private clouds and Microsoft System Center. Niklas has been working with Microsoft infrastructure solutions since 1998. He has quite a lot of experience in virtualization projects with consolidation planning and migrations from physical to virtual. Niklas has done both project management and technical design in Hyper-V upgrades and new installations. He started working with Hyper-V as a former employee in the TAP program for Windows Server 2008, and has great interest in automation and optimization of virtual machines and hosts. He was also responsible for the TAP program engagement for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 at RTS. Niklas has been on TechNet TV in Sweden and has been working as an MCT at a local learning center for a long time. He is also a VMware vExpert 2012 and a VCI.

Lai Yoong Seng has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional ( MVP ) in virtual machines since 2010. He has more than 10 years of experience in IT and started his career as a Hyper-V and System Center specialist for Redynamics in Malaysia. He started specializing in Microsoft virtualization and started blogging (www.ms4u.info) and presenting for local and regional events. He is the founder of Malaysia Virtualization User Group ( MVUG ), which has provided a one-stop center to people who want to learn about Hyper-V and System Center. Lai has also actively participated in Microsoft Technology Adoption Program ( TAP ) in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1.

Reviewing a book takes a lot of effort and is a difficult process. It would not have been possible without the help of my family, girlfriend, colleagues, and friends. I would like to thank my parents, and girlfriend Elizabeth Seow for understanding me, being patient, and helping to keep all the other stuff together while I was reviewing the book. In addition, a very special thanks to Packt Publishing for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this book.